The Strange Creature at Kuroyuri Apartments
By Gao Yuzuki
Japanese release: November 2016 - ongoing (one volume so far)
The apartment-sharing comedy manga begins with Meme, the daughter of the demon world's most powerful summoner. After her father suddenly casts her into the human world to teach her some lessons, she finds an ad for an apartment with no rent or upfront fees. The catch: she has to entertain the young landlord Sentarō. To pass the test, she summons a strange creature and causes Sentarō to have a nosebleed.

Tsuno no Gakuen
By Mito Aoi
Japanese release: August 2016 - ongoing (one volume so far)
This school fantasy manga centers around horned boys who can control magic. Eru, who just enrolled in a magic school, is self-conscious that his horns are smaller than everyone else's. Something begins to change when he encounters the ace student Rihito.

Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy
By Sanzō
Japanese release: April 2016 - January 2017 (one volume)
This manga follows a socially awkward boy and his childhood friend who is beautiful, smart, kind, and just about perfect in every way. However, the boy turns down her confession of love. A few days later, the girl goes missing, only to reappear before the boy a few days later, after shedding her human form …

Teasing Master Takagi-san
By Sōichirō Yamamoto
Japanese release: 2013 - ongoing (six volumes so far)
The manga centers on Nishikata, a middle school student who has suffered humiliation due to being teased by Takagi, the girl who sits next to him. Since then, he has vowed to one day do the same to her and succeed in teasing her.
The manga is inspiring a television anime next year.

Shibuya Goldfish
By Hiroumi Aoi
Japanese release: January 2017 - ongoing (two volumes so far)
The story follows an average, albeit untidy guy named Tahatsu Tsukiyo. Tahatsu's peaceful everyday life comes to an end man-eating goldfish overtake Shibuya. The fish are everywhere, filling the famous scramble crossing, hanging near the Hachiko statue, and even floating through the city center all the while eating as many humans as they can. The unprecedented crisis marks the "worst survival competition in history."

Defeating the Demon Lord's a Cinch (If You Have a Ringer)
By Tsukikage
Art by bob
Japanese release: December 2016 - ongoing (three volumes so far)
This fantasy light novel series begins with Naokatsu Tōdō, a holy warrior summoned from an alternate world to defeat a demon lord. Ares, a priest ordered to support the holy warrior, is shocked at the sight of his party members: a mage who can only use fire spells, a sword fighter who just transfered schools, and the holy warrior himself who repeats the same rash actions over and over. Unconvinced that they will succeed, Ares conceals his skill levels and follows behind.

The Empire can be seductive, particularly if you're an aspiring young pilot...Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree both know this very well when they enroll in the Imperial Academy, eager to pursue their dreams. When Thane discovers the darker side of the Empire, though, and defects to the Rebellion, the pair's lifelong friendship will be put to the ultimate test. Will Thane and Ciena's relationship -- or even they themselves -- survive this galactic conflict...?

Fruits Basket Another
By Natsuki Takaya
Japanese release: September 2015 - ongoing (three volumes planned)
Manga sequel to Takaya's original Fruits Basket manga:
The manga takes place after Tohru has graduated high school, and features a girl named Sawa who has just entered the high school. When the manga started Takaya said the main cast (Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo) would not appear in the new series, but might be mentioned.

Japanese release: November 2014 - April 2016 (five volumes, with ongoing sequel)
This light novel series series is set in a world where humans have been driven to extinction by "Beasts." The duty of fighting the Beasts fall to "Fairies," who are destined to use their powers to wield "Holy Swords" called "Kariyon" and eventually meet their destiny of death. A sole human being named Willem wakes up after several hundred years, and continues his fight against the Beasts. The series follows the everyday and transient lives of the leader Willem and the female fairy warriors.
The light novel series inspired this year's anime.

This hit series continues its exhilarating run of battles in a volume that demonstrates the stunning impact of shonen manga at its best. Nick Creamer has the details.― Although the Hassaikai assault isn't necessarily My Hero Academia's best arc yet, it's fair to say that it's undoubtedly the manga's most complicated. We're following a half-dozen separate teams representing at least three separate in...

Todd hosts this week and gets to talk about the latest Valkyrie Profile game! Plus a new Zelda, some old Konami classics, Sega memories, and the surprise return of Blaster Master!― Hello, and welcome to another edition of Todd Guest Hosts His Old Column. This week's edition comes on the heels of Sega halting sales of Judgment, a spin-off of the popular Yakuza series, due to Japan's bizarrely draconi...

Why can't we get Netflix anime like Devilman Crybaby or Aggretsuko on bluray in the West? Justin breaks down some of the reasons why.― DarkShadow asked: So, several folks in anime circles are complaining that whenever Netflix gets an anime exclusive (i.e. Little Witch Academia TV series), that anime title is effectively condemned to not be released on home video, like it will never be released on h...

Kim Morrissy explores the legacy of the massively influential cult hit Boogiepop and Others, a supernatural story about adolescent anxieties with an unprecedented impact on the light novel industry.― In 1997, Kouhei Kadono's Boogiepop and Others won the 4th Dengeki Novel Prize (then the Dengeki Game Novel Prize). Despite the publisher's obvious faith in the novel's quality, when the manuscript was p...

This compilation film for the first half of this beloved fantasy anime compresses Made in Abyss' story without losing any of its wonder and charm. Theron Martin has the full story on what was changed in the move to the big screen.― Journey's Dawn is a compilation movie that condenses the first eight episodes of 2017's Made in Abyss TV series into a roughly two-hour story. Its four-minute prologue is...

This experimental comedy anime adapts a 4-panel manga about a free-spirited woman in her twenties into something truly avant-garde. Micchy and Steve explore what makes this collaborative anthology series so special.― Rinshi!! Ekoda-chan adapts a 4-panel manga about a free-spirited woman in her twenties into something truly avant-garde. This week, Micchy and Steve explore what makes this collaborati...

This series of vignettes might not make for a satisfying film when smushed together, but Take Your Marks still offers an enjoyable set of old-fashioned Free! adventures. Nick Creamer has the details.― It's been interesting to watch the Free! franchise grow and transform, the show itself oddly echoing the journeys of its characters. The show's first season focused largely on slice of life and comedy,...

Paul plumbs the psychedelic depths of this alternate-history superhero thriller, along with a breakdown of all this week's new blu-ray releases!― There's apparently a new game in the Fate franchise coming out this week, and I hope it's good. Not because I don't already have a huge gaming backlog to deal with, but because I need an excuse to finally take a break from the Fate smartphone game. A pers...

Mike Toole takes all 8 episodes of Rooster Teeth's ambitious, 3DCG sci-fi mecha action series - starring Creed's Michael B. Jordan - out for a spin.― Many fans of animation and nerd culture around the world revere Rooster Teeth, the Austin-based production studio that began a slow climb to fame back in 2003 with Red vs. Blue, a series of online animated shorts created with the Halo engine about two ...